User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟
January 20, 2009 at 2:35 AMHi John , Matt, and Marco
Thank you all for your outstanding efforts to help me make my crazy dream a reality.
Any mistakes or shortcomings are of course my own, but the poddies must know that I absolutely couldn't have done it without you.
Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟
January 20, 2009 at 2:01 AMHi all, here is the text with pinyin.
慈母手中线，
címǔshǒuzhōngxiàn
游子身上衣。
yóuzǐshēnshàngyī
临行密密缝，
línxíngmìmìféng
意恐迟迟归。
yìkǒngchíchíguī
谁言寸草心，
shéiyáncùncǎoxīn
报得三春晖!
bàodésānchūnhuī
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 20, 2009 at 1:39 AMHi penben and biewangji
Thanks for your enthusiasm. Looking forward to your questions, comments and feedback!
Hi barto
I've never argued that Chinese will lose the 2-, and 4- character phonological blocks. They're integral to the structure of the language. My point is that the classical allusions, 典故, 歇后语 and so on are on a notable decline, as they have been in the West since the rise of television.
I agree that there is value in studying dialects, 平仄 and so on. My show, however, will not approach the poems from that perspective. ChinesePod users are primarily interested in Mandarin, and in Chinese culture and history.
Very few of us can read Homer in the original Greek, but most people would argue that there is value in reading a good translation with footnotes. That is roughly the service I hope to provide to the poddies.
Posted on: What's Your Name?
January 19, 2009 at 10:57 PMHi kobukuro
With one of the largest land masses in the world, a population well over a billion with varying levels of literacy, numerous local dialects, and so on, it's remarkable that there is even an attempt at a uniform language.
I got the information from years of living in Shanghai, Nanjing, and visits to Taiwan. It was confirmed by Chinese colleagues. Hundreds of millions of people in North China may say things one way; hundreds of millions in the South will say it a different way. No one is necessarily right or wrong.
As a beginning student, probably the best thing you can do to prepare is to resign yourself to 1) often-confusing grammar rules and 2) wide regional/class/variation.
It's like if someone asks me "do you like Chinese cooking?" You may as well ask "do you like European cooking?"
Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7
January 19, 2009 at 8:18 AMHi tjr226
Thanks for the tip. 投入 can mean "to invest in," but that is not the best usage here. I have changed it to “to put into," as in "to put into use."
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 7: A Firing Afoot?
January 19, 2009 at 7:04 AM*expansion sentence corrected by moderator
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 7: A Firing Afoot?
January 19, 2009 at 6:41 AMHi chistudent
Great list! My favorite is 财源滚滚- 裁员滚滚, it brings to mind poor former employees rolling down the stairs from their office.
Chinese truly is a punster's dream come true.
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 19, 2009 at 6:36 AMHi henning
It's very hard to make generalizations, and I'm sure that I'm not doing justice to well-read people like your wife.
One other way to think about the value of learning 成语 as opposed to, say, nouns and verbs, is how much it will hold you back not to know them. In my experience, it's a much bigger hassle to search in vain for a noun or adjective than to be unable to come up with the correct allusion or proverb.
Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟
January 20, 2009 at 2:49 AMHi theimposter and grettir
So great to hear that you enjoyed it! Researching it and making it was also a blast.
I definitely am open to suggestion about the length. Since there is only one speaker, I wanted to err on the side of keeping it short. But there was plenty more to say. I just don't want it to be overwhelming or "lecture-y."
Thanks again, and we on the CPod team look forward to putting out even more good stuff in the future.